If you’re a permanent Oxford resident or a student who stays in town during the summer, you know that this time of year is delightfully laid back. It’s a time to relax and thank the lord for giving us air conditioning, and it’s a time to accomplish things that have been lingering on your to-do list for too long. The Shelter on Van Buren is just over halfway through its summer movie series, which entails double features every Thursday in June and July at 7 pm, and it is the perfect way to relax away from the heat and also feel productive by seeing movies that everyone needs to see at some point in their life.
In an interview, Shelter owner and film enthusiast Lee Bowie explained that the idea to incorporate movie nights into his venue came about after they realized they would have a stage and partnered with Oxford Film Festival in February. The list of movies playing during this summer movie series were chosen by Bowie.
“We want to boost some things that folks may have heard of but just haven’t seen, or movies that people have seen and love and would love to see again in a setting with a bigger room,” Bowie explained. He decided to try out the movie nights in the slow months of the summer to see how it would go.
If you’ve ever been to the Shelter, you know that it is set up and decorated like a large living room. In the evenings when the projector comes on and the screen is pulled down, the venue lights by the stage all turn off, and patrons have no trouble making themselves at home on one of the many extremely comfortable couches or chairs. There is a one dollar cover, and the baristas pop popcorn for one dollar a bag.
Bowie explained that he didn’t want to choose more recent popular movies, or just pull from the AFI film list. The movies that were picked were paired up to cater to certain crowds with common preferences or interests on any given movie night. Shelter led off with a Science Fiction double feature, airing classics Creature from The Black Lagoon and Night of the Lepus. If you missed the movie nights in June, don’t fret, because another Sci-Fi themed night will happen on July 28 with Escape from New York and The Warriors, closing out the summer series.
On July 14, two famous crime movies will be paired together. First, 1968 film Bullit includes one of the most famous car chases in film. Second, the film The French Connection, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1971, is about a heroin deal gone bad.
On July 21, two mid-century romantic comedies will be screened. The night will start with Desk Set, a film from 1957 about two co-workers who clash when a TV network’s research department has to be computerized, and the night will finish with Pillow Talk, a 1959 film about the drama and romance that ensues when a man and a woman who live in the same apartment have to share the same phone line.
If you’re getting tired of spending the summer on your couch watching Netflix and don’t have the coins to go to Malco every week, the Shelter’s movie series offers an alternative that is affordable and great for anyone, whether they are flying solo, with a group, or with a date.
